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  Esme - From their pens to your...

  Saki Saki

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  Hector Hugh Munro, more familiarly known by his pen-name ‘Saki’ was born in what was then Akyab in British Burma on 18th December 1870. His father was an Inspector General for the Indian Imperial Police, and his mother the daughter of a Rear Admiral. 
  When he was 2 his mother died and he and his siblings were sent back to England to be raised by their grandmother and paternal maiden aunts in a strict, puritanical household near Barnstaple, Devon. Educated by governesses Saki used many of these women as character models for his later writing. 
  At 17 his father retried and returned to England and then embarked on a series of European travels with Saki and his siblings. 
  After a short stint working in Burma with the Indian Imperial Police Saki decided to move to London to make a living as a writer. Initially he wrote as a journalist for a number of newspapers and magazines before attempting an historical study, ‘The Rise of the Russian Empire’, whose real value lay in directing him to writing short stories instead, the first of which, ‘Dogged’, he published in 1899. 
  From here it was a short stab of the pen to writing political satire before in 1902 he became the foreign correspondent for The Morning Post, first in the Balkans, then Russia, Paris and back to London in 1908, where 'the agreeable life of a man of letters with a brilliant reputation awaited him.'  
  Collections of his short stories full of witty, mischievous and often macabre stories that satirized Edwardian society and two novels now appeared in the years up to the Great War.  At its’ outbreak he was 43 but managed to join as an ordinary trooper. More than once he returned to the battlefield when officially too sick or injured.  
  On 14th November 1916 Hector Hugh Munro was sheltering in crater during the Battle of the Ancre, when he was shot and killed by a German sniper. According to several sources, his last words were "Put that bloody cigarette out!"

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  Mary E Mann - A Short Story...

  Mary E. Mann

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  Mary Rackham was born in Norwich on 14th August 1848 to a merchant family.  Little is known of her early life and her biography only re-appears in September 1871 with marriage to Fairman Joseph Mann, a farmer with 800 acres.   
   
  Mary moved to Shropham, Norfolk and became involved with the workhouse, visiting the sick and other unfortunates of the parish, her observations and experiences a valuable source for her later stories.  
   
  She took up writing, partly to offset the dreary village life of her surroundings, in the 1880s and published her first novel, ‘The Parish of Hilby’ (1883) at her own expense. It was well received by the critics.  
   
  Thus began a career that spanning three decades provided thirty-three novels, hundreds of short stories, and fourteen plays.? Her work was largely focused on rural life in Norfolk and centered on the fictional town of Dulditch, with grim but authentic accounts of poverty and deprivation.  
   
  Her marriage produced one boy and three girls. With her husband's death in 1913, she moved to Sheringham.  
   
  She is regarded as a major contributor to East Anglian literature with particular praise given to her short stories. 
   
  Mary E Mann died on 19th May 1929.  She was 80.  Her grave-marker is a carved open book with the epitaph ‘We bring our years to an end, as if it were a tale that is told’. 
   
  1 - The Short Stories of Mary E Mann - An Introduction 
  2 - Wolf Charlie by Mary E Mann 
  3 - Ben Pitcher's Elly by Mary E Mann 
  4 - Some of the Shipwrecked by Mary E Mann 
  5 - Rats by Mary E Mann 
  6 - Clomayne's Clerk by Mary E Mann 
  7 - The Country Doctor by Mary E Mann 
  8 - Little Brother by Mary E Mann

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  A Clown for Orphans & Other...

  Patrick Oliver Griswold

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  A Clown for Orphans & Other Short Stories gathers seven quiet, redemptive tales—ordinary lives brushed by the surprising nearness of God. These aren’t stories that shout. They move at the pace of real life: steady, unhurried, carrying both wounds and hope. 
  There’s a clown who gives more than he thought he had for the sake of another’s healing. A teenage girl with a jar of coins whose small act sets something sacred in motion. A hard man who learns mercy is not weakness, but the only way left open to him. 
  I write with honesty and faith, where questions are welcome and grace shows itself in unexpected ways. 
  This audiobook is narrated by Patrick Oliver Griswold, with additional character voices provided by professional actors. 
    
    
   

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  The Sin of Monsieur Pettipon

  Richard Edward Connell

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  "The Sin of Monsieur Pettipon" by Richard Edward Connell is a humorous short story set in post-World War I France. Monsieur Pettipon, a modest and diligent clerk in a small French town, becomes the focus of the tale when he unintentionally misplaces an important government document. Fearing disgrace, he embarks on a journey of deception and lies to cover up his mistake. His innocent nature contrasts with the escalating absurdity of his actions, leading to a series of comical misunderstandings. The story highlights the pitfalls of dishonesty and the humorous consequences of even the smallest transgressions.

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  August Heat

  W. F. Harvey

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  Title: August Heat 
  Author: W. F. Harvey 
  Narrator: Jonathan Dunne 
  Original Publication: 1910 
  Public Domain: Yes 
  Series Placement: Number 35 in the Timeless Terrors series 
  Description: 
  August Heat by W. F. Harvey is a study in fate and foreboding — a story where coincidence feels like prophecy and the ordinary turns quietly terrifying. On a blistering summer afternoon, an artist sketches the image of a man destined for death. By chance, or by something darker, he meets that very man soon after — and together they face a future that may already be set in stone. 
  Harvey’s understated masterpiece captures the dread of inevitability without a single ghost or monster. Its horror lies in what cannot be changed — the creeping sense that destiny is real, and that some meetings are written long before they occur. 
  Narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance evokes the suffocating heat, the weight of coincidence, and the chill of realization that closes around both men. While the text itself is in the public domain, this narration is an original performance and copyright © 2025 Jonathan Dunne. 
  Part of Timeless Terrors, a series devoted to resurrecting the masters of the macabre, August Heat stands as a haunting reminder that true terror needs no apparition — only time, silence, and the certainty of what must come.

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  Save Me

  Samantha Chase

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  Ryleigh Donovan has been unsuccessfully dodging her mother’s matchmaking attempts for far too long. In an act of desperation, she finds the one guy in her small town who is guaranteed to shock everyone to be her fake boyfriend. It doesn’t need to be for long—she just needs to buy herself enough time to recover from her mother’s last disastrous fix-up. It’s really a fool-proof plan. But when a few staged kisses lead to some very real feelings, she realizes she might be in over her head. Ryker Masella has been patiently waiting for the perfect opportunity to get Ryleigh to take him—and his numerous attempts at asking her out—seriously. When she grabs him and kisses him in front of her family to prove a point, he’s more than on board. But when she proposes a fake—and temporary—relationship, he’s 100% on board. After all, she might be all about pretending, but he sees it as a way for Ryleigh to truly see the real him. Fake flirting and orchestrated dates quickly bring on real feelings. For Ryker, they’ve always been there, and he’ll be as patient as he needs to be. She might have asked him to save her from her family, but what he wants is to save her from herself. Each book in the Donovans series can be read as a standalone.

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